Thursday, 18 September 2014

North German Lagerbiers 1879 - 1893

This time we'll be looking at the Lagerbiers of three North German ports: Hamburg, Bremen and Kiel. I wonder what we'll find?

I'll start with a word of warning: for the Hamburg samples both the OG and FG are calculated. In the published analysis there was only extract (real FG Balling) and ABW. I know from plugging in other numbers that the measured extract often doesn't 100% match the one calculated from OG and FG. Which is my way of saying that there's room for a fair degree of error.

Quickly glancing at the Hamburg set, they look pretty much like the Lagerbiers from other German regions, with OG averaging 1053.6 or 13.28º Plato. That's a bit more than Hannover region and a bit less than Westphalia. I think we're seeing a definite trend here. When I've finished going through all the analyses, I'll calculate averages for the whole of Germany. I reckon OG will come out 1053-1054.

Again, there are examples at the top and bottom end that look like they belong elsewhere. The bottom three - all under 12º Plato - look more like Schenkbier. At the top are a couple that look like Bock. You may have heard of the brewery behind the strongest of the set: Holsten. Now isn't that handy. The Holsten website list the OG in Plato. Which means I can put together a little table of their beers.

Holsten beers in 2014

Year

Beer

Style

OG

FG

OG Plato

ABV

attenuation

bitterness (EBU)

2014

Pilsener

Pilsener

1044.9

1008.0

11.20

4.80

82.17%

28

2014

Edel

Helles

1044.9

1007.3

11.20

4.90

83.73%

23

2014

Export

Export

1047.4

1007.5

11.80

5.20

84.17%

27

2014

Extra Herb

Pilsener

1044.9

1006.5

11.20

5.00

85.51%

40

2014

Stark

Bockbier, Dunkel

1066.2

1012.7

16.20

7.00

80.88%

16

Source:

Holsten website http://www.holsten-pilsener.de/biere.html

That's interesting. The rate of attenuation has hardly increased. But that's only because the Holsten had untypically high rates of attenuation. The strongest 19th-century Lagerbier even has a higher degree of attenuation that the nearest equivalent modern beer, Stark.

Einbecker Brauhaus also list the OG, so I can treat you to another table:

Einbecker Brauhaus beers in 2014

Year

Beer

Style

OG

FG

OG Plato

ABV

attenuation

2014

Brauherren Pils

Pilsener

1045.7

1008.1

11.40

4.90

82.27%

2014

Dunkel

Dunkles

1046.1

1008.5

11.50

4.90

81.57%

2014

Weihnachtsbier

Festbier

1050.7

1010.1

12.60

5.30

80.19%

2014

Ur-Bock Dunkel

Bockbier, Dunkel

1066.2

1016.3

16.20

6.50

75.36%

2014

Ur-Bock Hell

Bockbier, Hell

1066.2

1016.3

16.20

6.50

75.36%

2014

Mai-Ur-Bock

Bockbier, Hell

1066.2

1016.3

16.20

6.50

75.36%

2014

Winter-Bock

Bockbier, Bernstein

1074.9

1017.5

18.20

7.50

76.63%

2014

Premium Pilsener

Pilsener

1044.9

1008.0

11.20

4.80

82.17%

2014

Landbier Spezial

Landbier

1047.4

1007.5

11.80

5.20

84.17%

Source:

Einbecker website http://www.einbecker.de/product-range

In this case the modern attenuation is much higher, as you would expect.

Once again, the average lactic acid content, at 0.252%, looks very high.

On to Bremen. What a weird set these are. For a start, half of them are dark. Though I'm not sure exactly what colour "Hellbraun" (pale brown) is. Only the Piksener and the beer below it really seem to Lagerbier strength. most of the examples aren't just in Bock country, they've strayed well up the Doppelbock mountain. I fail top see how these can be described as Lagerbier.

The rate of attenuation is shockingly high - over 80% for some beers with gravities over 16º Plato. And blow me, the level of lactic acid is actually just about acceptable , resting a little below 0.1%.

Finally the beers from Kiel. It's worth noting that at this point Kiel hadn't long been part of Germany. Schleswig-Holstein, the region it's in, was Danish until 1864.

There's a bit of everything in there: Helles, Dunkles and Vienna Lagers. And they all look like Lagerbiers, except for the strongest example. With that excluded the average gravity is 1050.9. I've not much else to say, other than that the average lactic acid content is the lowest we've seen so far: 0.07. Well done, Kiel!

I'm not too sure what normal CO2 levels are. I can say that the beers of Kiel were fizzier than those of Bremen. Is that good or bad?

and the only Frisia-Brauerei I could find any reference to was one in Weener, Eastern Frisia -- there's a historical advertisement in this GoogleBook here:http://books.google.de/books?id=JZb25rw0FWsC&pg=RA1-PA76&lpg=RA1-PA76&dq=frisia+brauerei&source=bl&ots=ysVQKMZB3O&sig=acNFRFqY5l5ljjOtWvTcPx6_krI&hl=de&sa=X&ei=cu8aVOqGIIfhywOxs4CwBA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=frisia%20brauerei&f=false

I'm going to guess this may not be possible, but is it possible to make educated guesses what some of these might taste like? If I've learned anything from reading your blog, it's that the characteristics of a style can change pretty significantly over time and a Helles circa 1890 may well taste significantly different from what's sold today.

Since it appears you don't have enough information from these records to know things like color and carbonation, I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't much information on how these might differ from modern counterparts, but any kind of educated guesses on these German beers would certainly be interesting to read. (Maybe it's clear to some people, but I'll admit my knowledge of things like how malts and hops have changed over the past century is pretty limited).

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